Manuscript Records of Traders, Travellers, Missionaries and Diplomats, 1853-1941 Part 1: Sources from the William R Perkins Library, Duke University

Publisher's Note

REEL 1
Letters of Sir Edwin Arnold, British poet and journalist, for the period 1869-1903, including many exchanges with Takaaki Kato, Japanese Ambassador in London, concerning Buddhism, Anglo-Japanese and Russian-Japanese relations.

Papers of Robert S Chilton Jr, Chief of the Consular Bureau in Washington DC, mainly for the period 1897-1901, including correspondence with American companies wanting to establish trade with China and Japan. There are also letters from Hubbard T Smith and other consuls regarding trade with East Asia.

The diary of Rachael Ferver, wife of an American businessman in Japan, for 1928, recording her life in Tokyo and Yokohama as part of the foreign community. She also writes about contact with Japanese professionals and servants.

REEL 3
The diaries of Augustus & Jeanette Healy, tourists, for 1920-1922, describing what they did and saw in Japan, Korea, China and Hong Kong during their 2½ year honeymoon.

The photograph album of Kiroku Shashin Honzonkai, containing black and white photos of emperors, government officials, ordinary citizens, monuments, street scenes, military parades, buildings and landscapes for the Meiji (1868-1912), Taisho (1912-1926) and Showa (1926-1989) periods.

REEL 4
The Correspondence and Papers of John Caldwell Calhoun Newton, missionary, for the period 1870-1931. Newton was a pioneer missionary of the Methodist Church South to Japan. He first went to Japan in 1888 as a faculty member of the Kwansei Gakuin Union Mission College and Seminary in Kobe, Japan. He lived in Japan until 1897, and then again between 1903-1923. During the last ten years of his stay in Japan, Newton was President of the Mission College. His correspondence is extremely rich and is covered in its entirety here. It includes letters to family and friends and to other mission leaders in America. These describe the difficulties and frustrations of his work and provide insights into the working, domestic and religious lives of people in Japan. We also include a number of his notebooks in which he discusses issues such as US-Japan relations, missionary work in China and Japan, Japanese culture and pedagogy.

REEL 14
Letters of Sir Harry Parkes, diplomat and British Minister to Japan between 1865 and 1883. A letter of 25 May 1853 concerns the rebellion at Nanking and the situation in Canton. A letter dated 14 October 1860 discusses the British invasion of Peking and Parkes's recent imprisonment. Three letters from 1872 involve the arrangement of a tour of British manufacturing cities by the Japanese wakura embassy.

Papers of Edward James Parrish, a representative for the British-American Tobacco company in Japan between 1900-1906. Correspondence and a notebook describing Tobacco Trade with China and Japan, 1894-1900.

REEL 18
Papers of James Barr Robertson, a British resident of Shanghai circa 1870. He was a member of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce and a shareholder and board member of several companies. Letters from W U Lay written from or near Yokohama, Japan, discuss conditions in China and Japan.

Papers of Mary E (McClain) Sword, including the letters of Hattie (McClain) Gring who was a missionary in Japan during the 1880's and 1890's. Sponsored first by the German Reformed Church and later by the Protestant Episcopal Church, the Grings lived in Yokohama, Tokyo and Kyoto.

REEL 20
Papers of William E Tolbert, including letters from Elizabeth Russell, who had been a Methodist missionary in Nagasaki, Japan, to her friend, Emma Tolbert. Russell wrote about Japanese customs, missionary work in Japan, the restoration of that country, and Russian refugees in Japan.